The problem with much mobile technology is that it's not really designed to be used while you're actually mobile – or at least, not if being mobile demands that you concentrate on something other than your mobile technology.

Like driving, for example. There's a reason why the use of handheld devices behind the wheel is banned in the UK: research shows the response time of a driver using a smartphone to access social media, emails or texts slows by around 37.5% (far more than after marijuana or moderate alcohol use).

But we're not very good at using mobile technology while walking, either. YouTube has armies of unsuspecting texters slamming into doors, colliding with lampposts, tumbling down stairs or tripping into fountains.

There is even an app, CrashAlert, being developed at the University of Manitoba in Canada that uses a distance-sensing camera to scan the path ahead and alert smartphone users to hazards by flashing a red square on to their screen.

The issue is that the human brain can only pay attention to about three things at a time – and concentrate effectively on just one of them. Even though the consequences of smartphone distraction are sometimes amusing, they can also be serious.

The number of children admitted to hospital after accidents in public playgrounds has climbed by about a third in five years, according to NHS data. Experts in both Britainand the US – where a similar rise has occurred – suggest some of the increase may be a result of parents being too distracted by their phones to supervise their offspring properly.

When already distraction-prone children get their own phones, the consequences can be catastrophic. Katherine Littlewood, 15, was hit by a train and killed on a level crossing last year; her iPod, headphones and the the BlackBerry on which she had been texting friends were found next to her body.

And now comes evidence that shows that 11-year-old pedestrians are three times more likely to be hurt or seriously injured on the way to and from school than 10-year-olds – and also, since 11 is the average age at which children receive their first mobile phone, six times more likely to be sending a text when it happens.

A quarter of children surveyed admitted that they had been distracted by personal technology while crossing the road. "There is," the report concluded, "a clear correlation between the use of technology and the time of serious accidents with children". We, or mobile technology, need to evolve.

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